Order to pick up, not delivery. [mod]

[Gelato.]

The ocean air smelled different in Caligo than in Sootopolis City. All her life, she'd known the salty, grimy air that matted your hair and chapped your lips, but this was a bird of a different feather. Smoke seemed to choke the salt right out of the air and Azo tasted soot where she hoped for the dampness she was used to. It smelled dirty and musty, like an old boot left out after the rain. The sun shone, but it seemed not to permeate the atmosphere of filth the town exuded. She was careful where to step, avoiding murky puddles and glowing cigarette butts. Her mother's words lilted in her ear. Suddenly she was six years old and learning about fungus. They grew in the dark, wet filth, feeding on whatever refuse they could sink their tendrils into. Their world was all rot and decay.

She clung to her shoulder bag like it was going to float into the air and carry her away. Under a half-crushed wool hat, her eyes darted from face to face. She reached up, gingerly, and pulled the brim a little lower. She was living out of that messenger bag, and she had no intention of being robbed on her first day in Caligo. A tall man with a Seviper tattooed on his left bicep looked at her a little too long and she scurried down the street, newsboy cap pulled even lower on her brow. Who was she fooling, anyway, she had orange hair for Mew's sake. It wasn't like she was being very discreet. Her soft curls bounced as she hurried. At her feet, the murky puddles started to flicker as tiny drops of read began to create ripples in them.

Azo quickened her pace further and was rewarded by a smattering of sharp pains up her left leg. After a few strides, she slowed again, until the pain faded. Her body was ill prepared for such sudden exertions, even after all her time spent doing just so. Such was the fate of someone working with damaged parts.

"Hey! You!" someone behind her shouted, but she didn't turn. The secret, she had found, was not altering your pace. If she had sped up, and that voice was for her, it would have become obvious that she'd heard the calling. If she however, didn't change her step at all, anyone would assume that she knew it wasn't for her, or that she simply didn't hear it.

The rain increased in its intensity. Beads of water clung to her bangs and dripped down her cheeks. It was a simple, passing ocean storm, common on the coast, but wet as anything. She tried to pull her coat closer to her, but it was summer and her clothing was mostly light. Goosebumps rose on her arms. This was not the kind of weather she should be out in. She needed to arrive quickly.

Finally, she drew near to her destination. Careful of the growing mud, Azo hurried to the door, seeking shelter under what small overhang remained of the dilapidated building. She almost turned away, thinking the had the wrong place, but a sign above the door confirmed her location. There, she saw another Seviper. Perhaps she had been wrong to hurry away from the burly man before. She breathed into one cold hand and knocked on the door with the other.

[Cai]

Kerrrrrrrranggggktttttt!

The sound of a large machine grinding and clanging as it jolted into life drowned out the sound of the pounding rain temporarily. Professor Labernum grinned as the old gears and wires began to function, and she swung open a small hatch with vigour. Flinging some old papers in, the machine suddenly incinerated them with a violent roar, but the Professor was unperturbed. She patted the grungy grey metal and wandered away, her murky sleeves slightly too long for her and hanging over the tops of her hands. She fiddled with one frayed edge.

She would've missed the knock at the door in all the noise, had her incinerator not suddenly given a great whine and come to a clattering halt. Labernum sighed. All her machines were faulty in one way or the other. Just like everything in this town. But it wasn't as if she could move, so she continued to live with the dirt and the mould and the breakdowns. But she wasn't the type of person to be bothered with such things, as her one true love was her work and research. Everything else kind of got left in the sidelines. However, the financial grants afforded by being an official region Pokémon Professor made it necessary for her to continue setting up little brats with their first Pokémon and sending them off on their merry way.

Like now. A timid knock at the door distracted Labernum from her work, and she sighed again, crossing the room to the black front door, pulling its rusted iron handle and swinging it open. She glared fiercely out, and saw the young girl stood on her porch, or rather her crumbly step with a large chunk of concrete missing. She grimaced.

"Come in." She said shortly, moving aside to allow the dripping child in. She would have protested about the mud and rainwater that was about to be trekked all across her tiles, but the building was in such a state that it really wouldn't matter anyway. She'd just have to get Mathieu to come in and clean up at some point this week... or next month. Whenever.

"I take it from your determination to wade through a tropical storm and your earnest expression that you've come to get a Pokémon off me." The Professor pulled the sides of her lab coat across herself, before remembering that she was in fact in the process of expanding like a balloon and the coat would no longer fit over her belly. She growled to herself, cat-like irritation on her face - pregnancy. The sheer joy of it.

"Unless this is a social call, in which case you've most certainly come to the wrong place, because I don't remember ordering a half-drowned teenager to keep me company," Labernum's wicked grin lit up her feline green eyes and she eyed the girl from across the room. She was incredibly fragile-looking, and her pallid complexion suggested some kind of ill-health, though in Corsair Cove unhealthy skin tone wasn't exactly out of the ordinary. Bright red hair was, though, and Labernum could only imagine the kid had stuck out like a sore thumb coming through the dingy streets of the town.

The dangerous town. Labernum felt a flicker of irritation at the peculiar maternal instinct that was kicking in - an instinct which made her want to scold the girl for being out in the rain alone, and to insist that she stay and get dry, and maybe call someone to let them know she was safe.

But of course, Labernum would sooner eat a Muk than say any of that out loud. So she settled for eyeing the girl severely from across the room.

[Gelato.]

For a time, Azo worried her quiet knock hadn't reached to the inside of the house. There were loud, mechanical noises coming from within and she was about to try her luck once more when the door opened. "Come in," was the brusque invitation, but she was hardly put off by a gruff tone. Nurse Mary was kind enough, under her hermit shell, so she was willing to try her luck with the mother to be. Azo nodded her head in thanks and slunk inside. She removed her hat, partly out of respect and partly to give her wet hair a heavy shake. She was wet, yes, but not entirely soaked; not just yet, anyway. She'd had the foresight to wear wool stockings, even in summer, for she knew that coastal weather could be unforgiving, especially when the summer winds whipped houses like misbehaving children.

She tried to keep her dampness and mud in one spot as she surveyed the abode. It was a dump. Somewhere inside her, Azo felt the creepy crawling of germs, like ants, marching across her, inside her, around her. Hospitals were spotless, she had always resented that. She never thought the day would come when she would miss the burning, clean smell of bleach. Not to be put off, she took a calming breath and exhaled slowly into her hands. Her gloves were in her bag, somewhere, but it was took late to dig them out now. They'd only become as soaked as her shoulders, and for what? One extra layer?

The professor spoke again, this time with a bit more humor in her voice. She flicked words out of her mouth like a tongue and Azo couldn't help but smile in appreciation of such speech. There was no laugh, but a small smile spread on her features like steam filling a room. She nodded mutely and exhaled a third time into her fingers. Finally, she felt them warming. The woman spoke again, and Azo felt her smile extend. "No no," she replied, her speech precise, "Just a pick up, today. I'm sure a woman like you must have a fully packed social calendar to attend to." In the hospital, Mabel would've pinched her ear for such a retort. Here, there was no such punishment to be had, and she found herself enjoying the leeway to poke a little fun at a stranger.

[Cai]

Labernum scowled at the visitor. Just what she wanted, a smart-mouthed, cheeky teenager dripping on her not-so-clean tiles. Well, there would certainly be no towels or hot drinks offered to this one, that was for sure. Not that she even had either of those things to give, of course, but that was beside the point. Labernum might be perfectly happy to dish out biting sarcasm, but she did not appreciate the little brats who stopped by her lab firing back their own snarky comments. Especially about the fact that pregnant scientists in dingy Corsair Cove had little to no prospects for social interaction. Although Labernum herself had very minimal interest in such activities anyway, preferring the company of her machines and Pokémon to actual humans. Which made the fact that she was five months pregnant rather unexpected, if you thought about it too long.

She fixed the trainer with her most withering glare before she flounced silently into a small walk-in cupboard attached to the lab, pushing the dented door with a resounding crrrreaaaak as its un-oiled hinges complained. The room was pitch black until Labernum hit a switch, causing a naked bulb to cast a very minimal glow across the room - not enough for normal human beings to see anything clearly, but somehow Labernum was unconcerned rooting around in the half-light.

Reaching up to a holey cardboard box on the top shelf, Labernum shook its contents out onto a small desk, not caring as a couple of scratched Pokéballs rolled off the surface and hit the floor. Out of nowhere, a Haunter materialised, its purple ghostly fingers becoming solid to pick up the stray balls, dropping them back into their box. Labernum grunted a thanks at it, not looking up from her inspection of the others. The Haunter promptly disappeared again, and Labernum continued to rifle through her stock. Despite her almost feral demeanour and snappy sarcasm, she took painstaking care to place starters with suitable trainers. She did not like the thought of her beloved Pokémon ending up in inappropriate care, so she made sure good matches were forged in her grimy lab. Tutting as she picked out three balls, she shoved the box back onto its shelf and shut the door with a second screech of the hinges.

Moving with an uncanny grace for someone with a belly just starting to expand rapidly, Labernum stood directly in front of the girl, looking down at her shrewdly. "Kid, I was tempted to saddle you with a bloody half-witted Magikarp for that comment, but here. Pick your poison." She extended a hand with three red and white Pokéballs, slightly darker in shade than the ones picked up from Lacewing Town, balanced in her palm. "That's Yamask, Chimchar and Natu."

AZO IS OFFERED ONE OF:
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[Gelato.]

The professor seemed to regard Azo with a healthy amount of disdain after her comment. Who knew she could've retained such sass after living in a hospital. Mentally, she both blamed and thank the troupe of young nurses, forever balancing out her elders with well-placed comments and eye rolls. It seemed to her, however, that this woman was in no mood for either, no matter how well-placed. Perhaps she'd struck a nerve with the social calendar comment? That would certainly explain her reaction and, now, subsequent behavior. Though, if that were the case and she had little interaction in her life, how did it come about that she was pregnant? Something of that sort would surely require at least some prolonged contact.

She mused quietly over that while the woman fussed with her cabinet and boxes and pokeballs. The house really was something of a clutter ball, but it did seem to be somewhat organized. A method to the madness, she decided, and it seemed to work, though her movements seemed a little haphazard. Some of the balls fell to the floor and she moved to pick them up, as the professort hardly seemed to notice them, but her attempt was in vain. A purple mass fazed into view and Azo was careful not to jump back and hit anything. Her eyes widened and her smile slipped off, but it seemed the creature was interested only in promptly doing what she had tried. She stayed her hand and watched the dark purple shade. Thinking back, she remembered Zachariah speaking of creatures like this, Pok?mon who could fade in and out where they pleased. This one resembled Gengar, from her memory, but it seemed too small.

Before she could put her thoughts together into one, reasonable, line, the creature was gone as quickly as it had appeared. How... perfectly interesting. She wondered if someday she would come to acquire a Pok?mon such as that and excitement fluttered in her ribcage. Suddenly, the woman was standing in front of her and Azo had to look up a little. She fiddle with her hat, but the woman spoke, clearing the air. "Well, then I thank you for your mercy," she replied, gently, switching her attention to the pokeballs she was being offered. Yamask, Chimchar and Natu. With some degree of difficulty, she called on what she knew.

Chimchar was easy. Nurse Rose had a son who'd started his journey some months before Azo and he'd sent a picture of his starter; a plucky Chimchar. Not that there was anything wrong with a flaming monkey, it just seemed somewhat boring to her. Next was Yamask. Thinking about that Pok?mon unsettled her. She couldn't remember what exactly she'd read about them, but she could clearly remember a sense of dread surrounding them, particularly the masks they held. Last was Natu, another easy one. Growing up, she had loved stories about Xatu and their abilities of foresight and premonition. How badly she had wished to be able to dream of the future, or have visions of what was to come.

Azo touched the pad of her index finger to the top of Natu's pokeball, before picking it up between her finger and thumb. "I'll take the Natu," she said, confirming her choice.

[Cai]

Professor Labernum pocketed the remaining two Pokéballs offhandedly, leaning on one elbow over a worktop as she surveyed the girl. "All right. Well, let it out then. Get acquainted," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and the girl was being immensely slow in not having done it already. Labernum tended to talk in that way, though, since she wasn't used to people keeping up with her prodigious mind. She stretched slightly, shifting uncomfortably in one of the few outward signs that her pregnancy was affecting her physically. Despite her growing belly, she somehow retained the cat-like agility that she had always had, but it wouldn't be long before she became truly cumbersome.

She was not looking forward to that day.

"I suppose I should give you some other bits and pieces," she muttered, sighing as she looked all the way across the lab to where more stacks of battered cardboard boxes were haphazardly aligned. "Haunter, could you..?" she asked, and the great purple shape suddenly materialised right next to her. With an enormous grin, it floated rapidly across the lab and dipped a long, translucent arm into one of the boxes, lifting a battered black pack out of it and a small oblong object. It disappeared promptly, then reappeared barely a whisker away from the girl, quite literally eye to eye with her. The Professor considered telling him not to scare her visitor, but then smirked impishly and merely sat back.

The Haunter thrust the items at the girl, then disturbingly flew straight through her and disappeared again, leaving Labernum to look in in mirthful amusement. "Interesting character, isn't he?" she drawled, taking a few steps forward so she could jab a finger at the items dumped in the girl's hands. "That's your Pokédex," she said, then paused, as if discerning whether or not she would have to explain further. With a sigh she decided she'd better, and went on "It records and provides information about Pokémon you see. Just press that button to use it. It's not rocket science." She snatched the black bag up and drew out some round objects. "These are your starter Pokéballs to get you started catching Pokémon, yadah yadah..." she explained boredly, tossing it back to her. "Think there's a map in there somewhere too, so you don't end up in the bloody wilderness before dawn."

Labernum paused, green eyes narrowed. "Kid, you've got some place to stay, right? You look an awful mess already, and you've only just got started." her tone was insulting and surly, but the sentiment was probably genuine. As much as it pained her to admit it, she had some sense of parental concern and was not in the habit of leaving straggly children to fend for themselves, particularly in dumps like Corsair Cove.

[Gelato.]

The pokeball was smooth in her fingers and light. It was funny, she thought it would be heavier. Azo turned it in the light, marveling at it, but she was quickly interrupted by the professor. Right, she should probably get to know her new friend. As for how exactly to do that, she was perhaps not the best person for the job and she doubted the human Drifblim before her would take kindly to her asking. She nodded sagely, as though she, too, found it prudent to introduce herself, and fixed her eyes on the little ball. It didn't exactly come with a manual. Her first thought was the small button in the center, so she tapped it with her free index finger. The ball swelled in her hand, but did not open. It fit nicely in her palm and looked a little more realistic for what it was holding, but still did not open. She tapped the button again and it shrunk. Great.

A third tap brought it back to full size, but the professor had already moved on from her suggestion. The purple shade from before returned, this time with a wicked smile spread across his gruesome face. He floated away for something and Azo fixed her gaze back on the ball she held. Was there some trick to opening it? Was it voice-activated? She hooked a nail into the groove where the two halves met and tried to jimmy it open, to no avail. She was sure the woman had noticed her inability by that point, but she didn't look up to make sure. Desperately, she gave it a shake, maybe expecting some kind of a rattle, but there was no sound and she was just as lost as she had been. What a fabulous start.

She opened her mouth to plead for assistance but promptly closed it when she raised her eyes and found those of the ghostly being she'd watched. She stared for a moment, transfixed and frozen, before she felt something touch her free hand. Somehow, she found it difficult to tear her eyes from those holding her captive in their gaze. Gingerly, she touched the foreign object with her fingertips, but that was all the exploration she could have before the object were shoved into her hands, both of them, and the eyes came in even closer.

Suddenly, she was colder than she had ever been. Her hair stood on end and her eyes went wide. Ice formed in her stomach and her blood stood still. The creature was passing through her. It was inside her. She was lucky she didn't drop her new possessions, her hat held firmly between her side and elbow. She was so cold, but she didn't shiver and, to her credit, did not cry out. The professor spoke some words that just barely made it into Azo's ears. "Qu-Quite," she forced out, blinking slowly. Her gaze went where the woman directed; the oblong object - the pokedex - in her right hand. She was silently thankful for the extended explanation, no doubt elicited by her deft expertise with the pokeball. The professor went on to explain that the bag held more pokeballs. Fantastic, she had some to practice with later. Wouldn't that be fun.

There was a pause and Azo raised her eyes to the woman once more, perhaps expecting some sort of lingering wisdom or a recommendation for where to go. Instead, she remarked on how inept she seemed. Well, that certainly wasn't far from true. "I won't be staying long," she said, quickly. Really, she had little desire to stay in such a filthy town. She wondered, vaguely, why a bright woman, such as the professor, would want to, either. However, the second half of the comment made her smile. "Actually, you'd think I look quite well, compared to a year ago."

The moment of truth came, where the women were separated from the girls. Azo held out the pokeball to the professor, obviously a little embarrassed over her inexperience. "Could you, um..." She stumbled on the words. How often did a person not know how to work such basic technology? This was hard. "O-Open this for me?"

[Cai]

The Professor stared at the kid, something halfway between utter and complete hilarity and true horror warring in her expression as she watched her struggle with the most basic, instinctual, fundamental part of Pokémon trainerhood. Labernum seemed to be making her mind up whether to weep with laughter or snatch the Pokémon back, sign the kid up for remedial education and tell her to come back when she'd grown half a brain. In the end, she settled for something in between, emitting a barely audible strangled sort of noise which might have been a laugh as she eyed her inexperienced visitor with complete disdain. Oh, she was used to people not understanding her when she told them to explain the mechanics of the trichromatic colour vision of a Mudkip, but when she told them to open a bloody Pokéball she expected some competent response.

"Mewtwo on a flipping stick!" the Professor exclaimed, stalking forwards and snatching the Pokéball off the girl with a crackling irritation. "I'm seriously reconsidering not giving you that Magikarp! What, where were you a year ago, living under a rock?" She snapped as she demonstrated a practised ball toss, flicking her wrist emphatically and watching as the Pokéball soared smoothly and split open, red energy releasing the tiny bird Pokémon which was held inside. A perfectly formed Natu then sat contentedly on her floor, glancing up at the two humans with a sedate chirp.

"Good grief, these blasted kids... all want to be a trainer... completely inept... not even capable of... wouldn't survive two minutes... " The Professor's muttering against the girl trailed into bad-tempered semi-audible grousing against trainer-kind in general, and she chucked the Pokéball back at the girl with a hard stare. "Are you sure you're capable of looking after a Pokémon? Going travelling alone? I mean, I've seen plenty of novices in my time but you top them all off, kid! I don't want to watch the news and hear you and that Natu have been flattened under a bus before you even made it out of Corsair Cove." Her words were harsh, for Labernum was a spiky individual, equipped with a very, very sharp tongue, but underneath the thorny exterior there was genuine concern.

After all, this wasn't exactly an old hand at Pokémon, was it?

The Professor looked at the girl clutching her Pokéball again.

Obviously not.

[Gelato.]

She wasn't sure exactly what she'd been expecting from the woman. Obviously not any warm reception, but Azo imagined at least it would be a quiet sort of reaction. In the beginning, it was. She almost held her breath awaiting judgement. It was so rare that she was the centerpiece of what she watched and affecting her observations so directly was certainly new. She didn't exactly expect her to outright guffaw and then shout, actually shout, and snatch up the pokeball. Azo opened her mouth to defend herself, but firmly shut it when the woman questioned where she'd been. This was never a fun conversation, and she decided to wait until the professor had blown off her steam before speaking. Anything she said now would be lost in a torrent of words.

The professor threw the ball and Azo had to keep from throwing her own objects. How on earth was she supposed to know to throw the expensive electronic device? Why not just chuck everything to the floor? She didn't know how to use the pokedex either, beyond the quick explanation she'd just received, maybe she ought to be throwing that around as well. Though, the small bird that came out of it was heartwarming in its cuteness. She felt her annoyance soften a little as it looked up at them both, obviously well-trained enough to not hop away right off the bat.

As expected, the woman opposite Azo fell into more grumbling, and the girl took that opportunity to stuff her new belongings into her bag. She'd need free hands if she was to introduce herself to a Natu, so small she felt uncomfortable letting it hop all day at her ankles. When finished, she placed one hand on the other and stood with her back straight, as she'd always been taught. The professor would eventually come to the end of her rantings and until then, Azo's lips formed a pursed line of silence. She knew how to wait.

The woman finished with a morbidly grim remark about her future with her newest acquisition and a withering look. "I think I shall be just fine, concerning the looking after business," she said, her words devoid of the pleasantries of before. "Sootopolis General," she added, curtly. "That's where I was a year ago, as well as nearly all my years before that." For one so usually calm, Azo was known to become quite annoyed when someone picked up on her inexperience with the real world. What she knew of the world, she knew through a filter, an oftentimes distorted one, at that. Why else would she have decided to travel, but to learn about the world she hardly knew?

[Cai]

This was, Labernum supposed, the point where most people would break down into a mess of stuttering, flushing, grovelling, pitying - or perhaps even tearful - apologies. However, she was made of distinctly sterner stuff, and if the kid was expecting a nice pat on the head to make up for her scathing words, then she was bound to be disappointed. "Yes, I could've guessed from your complexion, which would do anyone in this sun deprived town proud. Sootopolis Hospital, hm?" she all but snarled, though as ever she was more bark than bite.

"Because I'm going to be living in one of those blasted places soon enough, since I am bloody well not going to push a small person out of me in one of Gil's disgusting beds with his wretched, creepy leer and his stupid Furret crawling all over the place and not to mention the food in that place-" she broke off what was rapidly turning into an impressive diatribe against the town's local hospitality industry and fell silent. Perhaps realising the young trainer was still there and that her tirade against Corsair Cove's lack of medical facilities, or even cleanliness, was completely beside the point.

"Oh, never mind" she snapped, and she waved one hand at the child. "Remember to feed that Natu three times a day and don't travel too far at first, because she'll get tired faster than a wounded three-legged puppy."

Without so much as another glance at the girl, Labernum turned away as if to get back to whatever had been occupying her prior to her irritable diatribe. But then she gave a tiny sigh, reached into her pocket and flicked a card at the girl. "Those are my contact details, kid. Just in case you ever do get hit by a bus. Except I can't help you in four months time, because I won't be able to fit through the front door." And that was as close to reassuring words Labernum was ever going to get.

[Gelato.]

Not that she'd really expected anything else, but Azo had hoped for at least a little softening. She'd be dead in less than ten years, after all, how about a little sympathy for that. Though, she was already in the wrong for so affecting her observations, and she mentally chided herself. One could not observe natural behavior if it were to be put through unnatural trials. If she just kept quiet and remained patient, she'd be able to watch what she wanted, rather than being lured into actual conversation with an actual person who actually seemed to want a response.

Somewhere during the professor's rant, Azo returned to attention, coming in at some point in her description of some man she didn't know. A snappy remark about her ghostly assistance crept up her throat and she had to tuck it under her tongue, more out of amusement than politeness. Surely. such a capable helper could be of use in such a scenario? A second comment crawled up, pertaining rather to the child's parentage, and Azo had to sink some teeth into her lip to keep it from escaping. Her lips quivered and she felt it hard to rein in the smile that threatened to smear across her face. She hoped the woman would hurry up and finish her rant, else she'd be a wreck.

Finally, she cut off and ordered her to feet her new companion. Though the thought of starving her only Pok?mon was, indeed, tempting, she had prior decided against it. After all, she'd come all this way just to acquire it. What good would starving it do? The woman turned away and Azo almost did the same, until she was presented with a business card.

For a moment, Azo was torn. This was equal parts protecting her investment and what she hoped would eventually evolve into motherly concern. For a moment, she pitied the child, but that moment passed when she acknowledged that the child would likely be a mirror of its mother. She looked at the card and considered it. She didn't know anyone on the island and an angry pregnant woman was never someone to bet against in a fight. All in all, it seemed silly to turn it down. She plucked the card from the woman's hand, gathered the sides of her skirt, and daintily curtsied. "Thank you kindly, ma'am," she lilted, head slightly bowed. When she rose, she beckoned the Natu and turned to leave.

The sky had cleared considerably in their time indoors, leaving a fine, breezy mist to cling to the houses and ruffians. Her companion chirped once at her ankles, urging her to open the door and begin.

And she did just so.